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Solar drier model development methods and working

Technical Report · June 2013

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.5049.8326

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Gom Dorji
Royal University of Bhutan
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 SOLAR DRYER
PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by; Gom Dorji EDE2011008

Namgay Tenzin EDE2011018
Tenzin Dorji EDE2011031
Ugyen Namtrul EDE2011038
Ugyen Wangchuk EDE2011039
Yonten Jamtsho EDE2011041
AIM: - To provide “GREEN” opportunity for drying various fruits and vegetables without using
additional energy input.

ABSTRACT:-
We all have experienced at one point of time or another power of the sun; while sitting in the
closed car in the hot humid summer, indeed a very hot experience. Solar drying is a very
promising technology that everyone can use to dry their food products and even the dairy
products.

The oldest source of energy SUN is the most reliable mode of drying vegetables, dairy products
and cereals. But over the time with increased pollution to both the air and water, sun drying has
been losing its ground. Solar drying provides a safe and reliable environment for drying the
above mentioned products in a pristine and more controlled mode, and it also improves the
quality of the dried products and its longevity.

The principle of this dryer is that, hot air is lighter than the cool air and it rises up the altitude.
While raising this warm air comes in contact with the food slices and draws the moisture from it.
The repeated cycle of this process makes it a very healthy, low cost long term investment.
Generally the suns power or heat is used to dry up the moisture content of the fruits or
vegetables. The use of external electrical supply is not provided keeping mind the low cost and
highly efficient, and self-reliable solar drier. The dryer is designed in such a way that maximum
absorption of available heat is possible almost all day long, i.e. done by raising the glass panel to
a certain degree. This is done with respect to the geographical location of our country, the sun’s
ray falls with certain degrees with respect to equator of the earth. Detailed explanation is given in
the later part.

However if one wishes to use the dryer inside their personal residence, you can do so by
connecting some bulbs in parallel and keep the bulbs right above the glass panel, here the bulbs
act as a source of energy or heat.

Because of the above mentioned usage of the drier, it can also be used during night where a
security light would be a satisfactory source of energy for the fruits and vegetables to dry.
Therefore this drier can be used in both day and night.

TARGET SUBJECTS:-
The use of this dryer is basically targeted towards the rural communities of the Sarpang and
Dagana dzongkhags. The dryer is designed, keeping in mind the financial crisis that many
villagers face in these two dzongkhags. It is cheap, robust, and easy to operate and maintenance
is very easy. Anyone can do repairing of this dryer, even an illiterate farmer will be able to repair
this dryer.
 There are many vegetables that farmers cultivate but most of them are cultivated in a small scale
and locals in these two dzongkhags mostly store dry spinach, and radish. Solar dryers are usually
classified according to the mode of air flow as natural

Convection and forced convection dryers. Natural convection dryers do not require a fan to
pump the air through the dryer. Therefore research efforts will be focused on designing and
constructing a simple natural convection dryer. The use of solar technology has often been
suggested for the drying fruits and vegetables to reduce energy costs and economically speed up
drying which would be beneficial to final quality. The drying time is reduced significantly
resulting in a higher product quality in terms of color and reconstitution properties. The solar
dryers are economical for small stake holders, especially under favorable meteorological
conditions.

The following table gives the average temperature for Sarpang Dzongkhag.
(Annual statistical report 2011, www.nsb.gov.bt)

Months Max temp. (°C) Min Temp. (°C) Avg. temp. (°C)
January 22 12 17
February 23 14 19
March 26 19 22
April 26 20 23
May 27 21 24
June 28 21 25
July 29 23 25
August 28 23 26
September 28 22 25
October 28 21 25
November 25 19 22
December 23 15 19
 variation of temp over months.
35

30

25

20

15

10

Max temp. (°C) Min Temp. (°C) Avg. temp. (°C)

WHY PRESERVING AND STORING FOOD IS IMPORTANT?

Preserving food for future consumption is very important art. In case of a disaster food needs to
be present for the very survival of our race. This strikes us that why food is getting spoiled.
There are mainly two reasons, firstly because of the warm and humid conditions the growth of
bacteria and fungi increases rapidly and it also assists the growth and survival of fungi. It is very
common to note that a chopped potato changes its color to somewhat dark brown or black if kept
outside for about an hour. Preserved foods are much easier for the sailor, soldier, merchant, or
pilgrim to transport. For fruits and vegetables to be enjoyed out of season, they had to be
preserved; and in some regions, a particular foodstuff could only be enjoyed in its preserved
form, because it didn't grow (or wasn't raised) nearby.

In past foods were dried after salting, this was done to inhibit the growth of bacteria and prevent
the food from getting spoiled. Today also we use same technique which is very simple but highly
effective.

UNIQUENESS FROM CONVENTIONAL DRYERS

Solar dryer is also very useful device for

 Agriculture crop drying

 Food processing industries for dehydration of fruits, potatoes, onions and other
vegetables,
 Dairy industries for production of milk powder, casein etc.
The process has several advantages as it requires less labor intensive, time and requires less area.
Thus solar drying is the best alternative as a solution of all the drawbacks of natural drying and
artificial mechanical drying.

Solar dryers is used in agriculture for food and crop drying ,for industrial drying process, dryers
can be proved to be most useful device from energy conservation point of view. It not only saves
energy but also a lot of time, occupying less area, improves quality of the product, makes the
process more efficient and protects environment too. Solar drying can be used for the entire
drying process or for supplementing artificial drying systems, thus reducing the total amount of
fuel energy required.

Advantages
 Products are dried in closed cabinet. Therefore food is more hygienic as it is protected
from dust, insects etc….
 Dried agro-products can be stored for longer periods of time at lower cost.
 The transportation costs to markets are reduced because of lower volume of agricultural
products
 Drying with solar dryers is much faster than open-sun drying and the food retains its
nutrient value.
 Many products increase their quality in terms of colour, taste etc…(and thereby achieve a
better price) when dried in a solar dryer.
 Cost of the operation of solar dryer is low as no fuel is needed.
Water Content of Fruits and Vegetables

Water makes up about 60% of the body’s weight. Fruits and vegetables contain large quantities
of water in proportion to their weight. The following table provides the water content of several
popular raw fruits and vegetables which are available at Sarpang and Dagana.

Fruits %water Vegetable %water vegetable %water

content content content
Banana 74 broccoli 91 potato 79

Orange 87 cabbage 93 radish 95

Peach 88
Carrot 87 spinach 92
Pear 84
cauliflower 92 tomato 94
pineapple 87
Plum 85 cucumber 96 eggplant 92

watermelon 92 peas 79

Working Principle of the design

The solar dryer considered in our research is simple and cheap. Here the product is placed on
trays or shelves inside glass/plastic covered drying chamber. Solar radiation is thus not incident
directly on the crop. Our principle here is that;
 black substance absorbs more heat than any other materials,
 Warm air is always lighter than cold air and,
 Air flows from high pressure to low pressure.
Air is allowed to flow through the heating chamber which is placed tilting at certain angle.
Preheated air warmed during its flow through the heating chamber is ducted to the drying
chamber to dry the product. Our design consists of following parts:
1) An air-heating (solar energy collector)
2) Drying chamber.
3) Air exhaust.
4) Tray capacity.

Function of the parts.

1) Air heater (solar energy collector)

Air heating consists of heat observer, silver sheet and air passage. Any black materials can be
heat observer. The air heater is constructed in such a way that it is air tight from two sides and
passage between bottom and top of the heater. It is rectangular in shape, where lower layer is
black insulated, second layer is air passage medium and top layer is transparent glass or plastic.
It is raised a bit from the ground to allow the cold air to flow in and is kept at certain inclination
with respect to the reference ground. When the solar light is incident on the heater the air inside
get warmed and pressure is also created low. When the cold air gets into the heater, it get
warmed and rises through the lower layer of shelves and exit from exhaust placed near the roof
of the dryer. The sides of the air passages are covered by silver sheet to reflect the light within
the heater, thus by trapping maximum sunlight inside. The air gets inside the heater due to the
pressure difference between surrounding and the pressure inside of the dryer. The passage of air
is considered on the basis that hot air is lighter than cold air, since the heater is raised at certain
angle, it is obvious that the hot air will pass through the passage to the top.

2) Drying chamber ( main body of the dryer)

It is the main part of the dryer, where the products are being placed and gets dried there. It
consist of layer of shelves made up of completely dried materials (to reduce moistures) having
tiny holes for the passage of the rising warm (heated) air from the bottom. When the dried air
passes through the layers, produce place inside dryer get dried. This warm air will contain
moisture when it reaches the top of the dryer.

3) The air exhaust

The air having passed over the dried substances becomes saturated with water and is discharged
through the exhaust to avoid condensation of water vapors in the event that the system
temperature falls. The size of the air exhaust should be small in order to slow the flow rate of
warm air from dryer to atmosphere. If the size of the air exhaust is large, there is less chance of
circulating warm air within dryer. So chances of drying produce are less. If there is no air
exhaust, vegetables and fruits may also decay. Therefore it is necessary to have air exhaust.

4) Tray Capacity:-
The average tray carrying capacity of the dryer is estimated at about 2kg per tray. However the
size and number of trays can be increased according to the design specifications keeping in mind
the equal spacing between the adjacent trays. However the prototype was tested on 0.25 kg of
vegetables per tray.

Estimation and Costing

Actual:-

1) Wood( blue pine) = [1cft * Nu 390]= 4* Nu 390= Nu 1500/-

2) Glass[1sqft*Nu 56, 4mm]= 16*Nu56= Nu 896/-
3) Shuttering Plastic[1kg*Nu230]= 1*Nu230= Nu 230/-
4) Miscellaneous cost= Nu 500/-
Total ≈ Nu 3200.0/-
Prototype:-

5) Wood( blue pine) = [1cft * Nu 390]= 1* Nu 390= Nu 390/-

6) Glass[1sqft*Nu 56, 4mm]= 8*Nu56= Nu 448/-
7) Plastic Glass = Nu 300/-
8) Miscellaneous cost= Nu 854/-
Total= Nu 1992/-

Note: - All the details are done according to the latest market rate.

Experiment using prototype (date: 03/05/2013)

Max. temp.59.4oC
Time(mins) Temp. Temp
outside(in°C) inside(in°C) Min. Temp.42.0oC
0-15 44 44
15-20 44 50.6
20-25 43.4 50.9 Climate: - Warm, Humid, Sunny, Clear Sky
25-30 45.3 53.8
30-35 44.4 54.2 Time of expt.:- 11.35 am – 12.40 pm
35-40 45.3 54.9
40-45 44.9 55.4 Initial Temp.:- Max 42.0oC, Min 41.0oC
45-50 43 54.6
55-60 43 57.8
60-65 43 59
 70

60

50

40
T°C Outside T°C
30 Inside T°C

20

10

0
0 0-15 15-20 20-25 30-35 35-45 45-50 50-55 55-60 60-65

Time (S)

Above is the curves plotted between time and temperature inside and outside the prototype
machine.

Photographs snapped during experiment

Cad drawing
 Reference
Anon R, A Simple Solar Dryer. Appropriate Technology, Pp. 5, 2, and 11, 1978a

Anon R., How to Build a solar crop Dryer. Santa Fe, USA: New Mexico. Solar. Energy
Association. Pp. 10, 1978c.

Annual statistics report for Sarpang and Dagana Dzongkhag 2011,

https://www.nsb.gov.bt

Sawn Timber rate.pdf

https://www.nrdcl.gov.bt

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